Paddy Ashdown: My tribute to the heroic raiders who took on 10,000 Nazis – in a canoe

Lord Ashdown, a former Special Forces Commando, on his admiration for the
Cockleshell Heroes, who took part in Operation Frankton, one of the most
daring and audacious raids of the Second World War - to blow up enemy ships
in Nazi-occupied Bordeaux in 1942.

Lord Ashdown, a former Special Forces Commando, pays tribute to the Cockleshell Heroes.

By Lord Ashdown

8:00AM GMT 01 Nov 2011

On a cold starlit night in December 1942, a British submarine, HMS Tuna, surfaced off the mouth of the Gironde estuary in south-west France. Ten Royal Marines under Major “Blondie” Hasler disembarked in five collapsible canoes and paddled off into the darkness: this was the start of Operation Frankton, probably the most daring assault on the Nazi-occupied mainland of the Second World War.

The mission was next to impossible. After navigating the treacherous tidal waters of the Bay of Biscay, Hasler’s men were to enter by stealth the most heavily defended estuary in Europe, to dodge searchlights, machine-gun posts and armed river patrols, paddle 75 miles upstream to the port of Bordeaux, and plant limpet mines on enemy blockade runners.

If they managed to achieve all this while evading death and detection by more than 10,000 German troops, their escape route was, if anything, even more treacherous. It was too risky for the submarine to wait; the Marines would have to ditch their canoes and escape Nazi-occupied France on foot, over the Pyrenees. It was a suicide mission in all but name.

The story of Operation Frankton, and what became of those extraordinary young men and their inspirational leader has been in my bloodstream since I joined the Royal Marines at the age of 18. Their exploits laid the foundations of the Special Boat Service, of which I was later privileged to become a member. That is one of the reasons why, over the last 18 months, I have so enjoyed writing a book – A Brilliant Little Operation, which will be published by Aurum Press next August, to mark the 70th anniversary of their raid – and making a BBC documentary about them which will be shown this Tuesday.

Some parts of this story have been told before, most famously (and inaccurately) in the 1955 film The Cockleshell Heroes. In the Fifties, it was told in the style of a Boy’s Own adventure, a tale of derring-do to cheer up bankrupt Britain during those years of gloom after the War. However, after months of research and interviews with some of the surviving participants, a more complex story has emerged.

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This was not, by any means, a perfect mission: only two Marines survived, Hasler and Bill Sparks. Of the remaining eight, two died of hypothermia after their canoe capsized, and the other six were captured by the Germans at various points, interrogated and shot. And although Hasler and three of his men did eventually, incredibly reach the port of Bordeaux undetected, the damage their mines inflicted on the German shipping there was relatively minor and quickly repaired. What’s worse, we now know that, as well as Hasler’s Combined Operations raid, a second secret British mission, ordered by the Special Operations Executive (SOE), was active in Bordeaux at the same time, in the same place and with orders to attack the same ships. If there had been better communication in London, Operation Frankton may not have been necessary at all.

So this multi-layered story is not just about the outstanding courage and spirit of the Cockleshell Heroes. It is also a tale of deceit, duplication and cock-up in Whitehall.

Despite this, Operation Frankton was important in three significant ways.

First, the audacity of the raid shocked the Germans to the core, forcing them to deploy more troops to defend their coastline. Second, it proved an inspiration to the French Resistance: there was a vast ramping-up of sabotage attacks once news of Frankton spread. Third, as a result of the two overlapping British missions working at cross purposes, the SOE and Combined Ops started to work together in ways which had a profound impact on D-Day.

Was this worth the lives of eight remarkable young Marines? It is difficult to justify any person’s death. But I think in the climate of the War at the time, yes it was.

So why should modern audiences be returning to Operation Frankton now, almost 70 years on? Some might argue that the Second World War is a period of European history best left behind. I disagree. As George Santayana wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I was once asked in which age I would most like to have lived. My answer was either the age of Nelson and Wellington, during the Peninsula War, or the Second World War. The latter was truly our finest hour; of course we should remember it.

In this age of easy living, when we are seldom asked to choose between ourselves and something greater, these Marines ought to be an inspiration. We hear Cameron, Clegg and Miliband talking about the “something for nothing society”. Well, we have a thing or two to learn from those who were prepared to sacrifice their lives for a higher cause. The story of the Cockleshell Heroes is not about glory. It is ultimately about humanity, and offers a profound lesson for our age.

The Most Courageous Raid of WWII will be broadcast on Tuesday 1 November on BBC Two at 9pm; Scot, 11.20pm